No let-up for house price inflation

Posted by Dan Wilson Craw1632.20sc on May 20, 2014

House prices continue to outpace wages. Hot on the heels of Mark Carney's interview with Sky News and David Cameron's interview on this morning's Today Programme, the Office for National Statistics published its House Price Index, which confirmed that there’s no let-up for first time buyers, who are facing double-digit inflation and stagnant wages.

Housebuilding might be up in Cameron’s neck of the woods, but the country’s 9 million private renters need the government to commit to 300,000 new homes before they will start to pay less for their housing.

Rampant house price inflation is not a sign of health but of sickness, and Mark Carney recognises this. Homes are so expensive in London and other parts of the country that employers now struggle to recruit people who can afford to live near their workplace. If companies start moving jobs out of London, the economy will stall and the housing crisis will start hitting the haves as well as the have nots.